Hyphenated Words, page 1

over-the-hill

Q. That was back in the eighties, you over-the-hill f�ckfaces. We're in a competitive global economy now, where Dave and Jay can't afford to lose even a week's worth of edge.

A. That's true at the general level, not at the specific. Our surveys indicate Web content in the year 2001 is the least competitive industry since Special Education. What else are you going to read? GettingIt? RequestLine? The Finger?

Because there is no widely accepted standard for implementing a VPN, many companies have developed turn-key solutions on their own. In the next few sections, we'll discuss some of the solutions offered by Cisco, one of the most prevalent networking technology companies.

turn-key = A term which describes a system (hardware and software) which can be used for a specific application without requiring further programming or software installation. The user can just “turn the key” (switch it on) and use it. 1995-02-06 From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing 2003-09-27

yellow-bellied

There are a number of conceptual, logical, and methodological flaws in his doctrines. As part of his efforts to gain a mainstream following, he publishes the Journal of Yellow-bellied Absenteeism.

Henry Charles Bukowski (1920 – 1994) was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles. It is marked by an emphasis on the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, alcohol, relationships with women and the drudgery of work. Bukowski wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories and six novels, eventually publishing over sixty books. In 1986 Time called Bukowski a “laureate of American lowlife”. Regarding Bukowski's enduring popular appeal, Adam Kirsch of The New Yorker wrote, “the secret of Bukowski's appeal… [is that] he combines the confessional poet's promise of intimacy with the larger-than-lifeaplomb of a pulp-fiction hero.”

I've long wondered at the connection between Second Life's endless supply of over-the-top drama and the strange psychology of certain players — particularly those seriously invested in “defending” Linden Lab and “policing” the Second Life grid.

It's personal. It's private. And it's no one's business but yours. You may be planning a political campaign, discussing your taxes, or having a secret romance. Or you may be communicating with a political dissident in a repressive country. Whatever it is, you don't want your private electronic mail (email) or confidential documents read by anyone else. There's nothing wrong with asserting your privacy. Privacy is as apple-pie as the Constitution.

The mixing of functions makes it difficult for outsiders to locate where exactly policy is set, particularly as the party, while far removed from its Marxist roots, retains many of the secretive habits of its origins as an underground organization. The recent appointment of a high-ranking official as party secretary for the Foreign Ministry, for example, spurred debate among tea-leaf-reading China watchers over whether he, or the minister, is really in charge.

Stempel told the U.S. House Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight what he told Stone. Particularly jarring was Stempel's revelation that, on the day he was to lose to Van Doren, he was strong-armed into answering incorrectly a question about the Academy Award for Best Picture for 1955: Marty, one of his favorite films. The incorrect answer he was forced to give was On the Waterfront—which won the same Oscar for the year before.

Herb Stempel. (One of the contestant in the American quiz show scandals of 1950s.)

double-cross = the betrayal or swindling of a collaborator or colleague.

put-up

There was a young lady named Bright,
Who traveled much faster than light.
She started one day,
In the relative way,
And returned on the previous night. When they questioned her,
answered Miss Bright,
“I was there when I got home that night; So I slept with myself,
Like two shoes on a shelf,Put-up relatives shouldn't be tight!”. limerick by J.A.Lindon. There was a young couple named Bright,
Who could make love much faster than light. They started one day,
In the relative way,
And came on the previous night.

strung-out

Sam has to contend with managing the bosses' skim going out the back door, cheats at the tables, the law breathing down his neck, and strung-out hustler Ginger (Sharon Stone), whom Sam falls for, and, despite his better judgment, eventually marries.

In her girlhood and before her marriage with Tom Willard, Elizabeth had borne a somewhat shaky reputation in Winesburg. For years she had been what is called “stage-struck” and had paraded through the streets with traveling men guests at her father's hotel, wearing loud clothes and urging them to tell her of life in the cities out of which they had come. Once she startled the town by putting on men’s clothes and riding a bicycle down Main Street.

forward-looking = ahead of the times; concerned primarily with the future.

washed-up

As the manacled prisoner came face-to-face with justice for the first time, he strove to uphold the swaggering image he had so carefully cultivated through decades of actual and exaggerated derring-do. “This man is a star,” Carlos said by way of greeting the investigating magistrate, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, in his bunker-like quarters at the Palais de Justice. “We are both professionals. We'll get along together.” Gesturing toward the assault rifles carried by his four police escorts, Carlos bantered, “Ah! The FA-MAS. We had those in Lebanon. They're good.” Though it was a display of insouciance for a man about to be charged with complicity in a 1982 car bombing that killed a pregnant woman and wounded 63 others, there was no masking the tired image Carlos cut as he stood in white pants, his mauvepullover stretched taut by mid-life paunch, his short hair a muddy gray. At 44, he looked like a washed-up playboy.

last-ditch = of something done as a final recourse (especially to prevent a crisis or disaster)

blue-chip

Like their American counterparts, Japanese executives cheerfully overpaid for their late-'80s acquisitions. But the Japanese made another fundamental miscalculation, says Gary Saxonhouse, an economics professor at the University of Michigan: “They had a faith in American landmarks, a faith in American blue-chip names.”

So Many Dreams So Many Losses1994-11-28 By Barbara Rudolph et al. @ time.com…

blue-chip = A stock that sells at a high price because of public confidence in its long record of steady earnings. (AHD)

booby-trap

Allegations of Gunrunning in Australia and money laundering in Canada and Europe. A suicide note addressed to the French Interior Minister. Two more booby-trapped houses, primed to erupt in flames at a telephone call.

Those were some of the mysteries that tantalized investigators on three continents last week as they continued to probe the deaths of 53 members of the Order of the Solar Temple, and apocalyptic religious cult, in Switzerland and Canada two weeks ago. One question was answered: Luc Jouret, 46, the spiritual leader of the cult, was among those whose bodies were found in three burned ski chalets in Granges-ser-Salvan, east of Geneva. Jouret's charred remains, along with those of co-leader Joseph di Mambro, 70, were identified from dental records. The finding ended an international manhunt for the two men and left police to pull together from other sources basic facts about the Solar Temple, an organization that apparently milked followers of their money before taking their lives.